Webster's Third New International Dictionary (unabridged) defines “avatar” as “the descent and incarnation of a deity in earthly form; . . . an incarnation or embodiment in human form; . . . a remarkably complete manifestation or embodiment usu[ally] in a person, of a concept, philosophy, or tradition; . . . a variant phase or version of a continuing basic entity sometimes implying no more than a change in name . . . ” (WEBSTER'S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY 150 (2002)). As the term is used in the computer arts, the intended meaning lies somewhere in between these definitions, perhaps best described as a representation of the person in an application.
In terms of use, avatars in the computer arts (hereafter described simply as avatars) find their most prominent use in computer games, although other uses exist. Games such as Asheron's Call (a registered trademark of Turbine Entertainment Software Corporation) allow many different players to meet online and play cooperatively (or not). Each player assembles a representation of herself, selecting a character type, a preferred graphical representation for the player, and equipping the graphical representation with information and supplies. This graphical representation, acting in the player's stead, is an example of an avatar.
But avatars as used today are limited to individual environments. A player cannot take her avatar from Asheron's Call and insert that avatar in a different game (except possibly for successor games by Turbine Entertainment). Thus, if the player wants to play a different game, she must create a different avatar for the different game. This required replication means that the effort put into creating one avatar is of no advantage for creating an avatar in a different environment. Worse, there is no way to carry over any of the details of the avatar from one game to another, which means that any time spent developing the character beyond its creation must also be reproduced.
Embodiments of the invention address these problems and others in the art.